my children are the reason i get up in the morning… and the reason i drink at night

mom’s bedtime stories

Here are some helpful books I’ve read (more likely browsed) over the past few years. Signup for Amazon Mom - it’s free for 3 months now, although it was a year when I was pregnant. Still worth it. Free two-day shipping is clutch when you can’t just run to the store like you used to.

Pregnancy

Skinny Bitch, Bun in the Oven - take this book with a grain of salt. The author is vegan, so her views may be more extreme then many of ours. But it is a great reality check to those who think they are being healthy by swearing off a glass of wine or two but sit around all day and sip on Diet Coke. I always come back to wine. (ps- great article on the dangers of diet sodas here and here)

Sleeping

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - I swore by this book. I think everyone I know knows that. But my boys are amazing sleepers and I like to credit it some of that to myself and what I learned from this book. I get the “Oh they just sleep great because they have each other in the room” a lot… and then I just stand there, smile and nod instead of rolling my eyes. They boys are more of a distraction to each other then a help, but I’ll let them think they are right.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins - This was like a slimmed down version of the original one above, but had some good tips for sleep training both. For example: Don’t keep one of the twins up if the other isn’t ready for nap – holding out on naps backfires and then sometimes they won’t go to nap at all because their ”fight fatigue” body chemicals kick in. If Twin A wants to go nap and Twin B doesn’t, let Twin A nap. Put Twin B in when they are ready. When Twin A wakes up, wake up Twin B. Twin B won’t be thrilled, but it will be worth it for your sanity because then they will BOTH be ready for their next time around the same time. Sal was and is a great napper. He probably got woken up from naps way more then he wanted to, but if I let him sleep too long- he would be wide awake when Bruce was ready for his next nap. That equals hell in twin mom world.

Toddlers

Toddler ABC Guide to Discipline – Currently on the nightstand. I even got my husband to browse this one! Super quick and to the point. It is important to have a united front when parenting or else kids get easily confused- this is an excellent guide for both spouses to read. There is a longer version of this if you have more time, Life with Toddlers

The Pocket Parent- didn’t dig into much yet, but has help for social settings like biting, hitting and public tantrums

The Happiest Toddler on the Block- I started this but only got a few chapters in. It’s a little long. The beginning did have a great chapter on listening to your toddlers and speaking toddler-ease.

Potty Training Boys the Easy Way- Another one on the nightstand. Even though we are no where close to potty training, I learned some great tips for early on like praising them for peeing and pooping so that they are more inclined to tell you when they did. If you are constantly like “eww gross, stinky, yuck”, kids might get embarrassed and afraid to tell you, which can make them reluctant to go on a toilet bowl. Boys learn later then girls but any tips to help the process are greatly appreciated.